They are reportedly going solely HD DVD:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-...coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-...coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true
HD DVD gains two support from Paramount and Dreamworks
- Thread starter elroy
- Start date
Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:
Just when you thought this crap (format war) was going to sort out by the end of the year.
The Digital Bits puts the blame squarely on Microsoft spreading lots of cash and guarantees around.
The Digital Bits puts the blame squarely on Microsoft spreading lots of cash and guarantees around.
It all comes down to cash, be it Microsoft's or Sony's. In the end, the poor slob who wants to buy the discs foots the bill................... 
I had to register with L.A. Times to read article. So here it is:
TECHNOLOGY
2 studios bet HD DVD will be a hit
DreamWorks and Paramount choose the high-definition discs over rival Blu-ray.
By Josh Friedman and Alex Pham Times Staff Writers
August 21, 2007
The format war over next-generation DVDs appeared to have a clear winner, but the picture just got fuzzier.
Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said Monday that they would offer movies exclusively in the HD DVD format rather than in that of the better-selling Blu-ray -- a surprise move that complicates the technology battle that Blu-ray had been clearly winning.
"I am very late to this party because I was skeptical about high definition," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, "but what is happening in the marketplace is a game changer."
Not included are director Steven Spielberg's films, which the companies said were "not exclusive to either format." Spielberg, Katzenberg and mogul David Geffen sold their DreamWorks SKG live-action operation to Paramount parent Viacom Inc. last year.
Both HD DVD and Blu-ray players produce much sharper pictures than conventional DVD players. Because most people still have standard machines, high-definition discs are just a fraction of the overall DVD market. From Jan. 1 through Aug. 12, consumers bought 2.1 Blu-ray discs and 1.1 million HD DVD discs, compared with nearly half a billion standard DVDs, said Judith McCourt, research director of Home Media Research.
But HD DVD players now retail in some cases for $299 and could be headed as low as $199 by the holiday season, Katzenberg said, making them affordable to families just as a diverse group of hi-definition movies is going on sale. He further predicted that this summer's Hollywood blockbusters -- including installments of the "Shrek," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Harry Potter" franchises -- would make the fourth quarter the biggest ever in home entertainment.
Blu-ray players have come down to $499 today from about $1,000 a year ago.
Despite being more costly, Blu-ray discs have outsold HD DVDs by 2 to 1 this year, and retailers including Blockbuster Inc. and Target Corp. are lining up on the Blu-ray side, according to the Blu-ray Disc Assn.
"Blu-ray is going to win," said Andy Parsons, spokesman for the trade group. "It's just a question of how much longer it's going to take now."
He said the decision "seems oddly timed given Blu-ray's tremendous momentum both with consumers and with retail."
Target will start selling a Blu-ray device this fall for the holiday shopping season, although it will still offer discs in both formats. Blockbuster now stocks Blu-ray discs exclusively at most of its outlets.
Monday's move by Paramount and DreamWorks Animation is sure to further baffle consumers.
The DVD format battle is reminiscent of the videocassette fracas in the 1980s, won by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s VHS technology over Sony Corp.'s Betamax. Many consumers are holding back on hi-def DVD purchases for fear of ending up like Betamax purchasers who bet on the losing format.
Although lower prices will help spur sales of high-definition movie players, consumers will still hold off because they don't want to be stuck with an obsolete machine that won't be able to play new movies from the winning format a year from now, said Chris Roden, an analyst at Parks Associates in Dallas.
"You're not seeing mass adoption right now," said Roden, who projected that consumers would buy 4.9 million high-definition players this year. "People are just frustrated by the format war."
Universal Pictures releases film DVDs exclusively in HD DVD, developed by a consortium headed by Toshiba Corp.
Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., meanwhile, release titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray.
Now, Warner Bros. Pictures and its sibling New Line Cinema will be the only Hollywood studios serving both formats, said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research.
"If you want 'Transformers' and 'Shrek the Third,' you'll need an HD DVD player, but if you want 'Spider-Man 3' or 'Pirates 3' you'll need Blu-ray," Greenfield said. "This substantially prolongs the format war."
Paramount had been serving both formats. For DreamWorks Animation, "Shrek the Third" will mark its entry into the high-definition market.
The format battle -- which many had assumed was nearly over -- could drag on for years, one analyst said.
"We don't see an early winner in this," said Jan Saxton of Adams Media Research Inc. in Carmel. "Most people are not aware that the original video format [battle] between Betamax and VHS lasted 10 years."
Katzenberg and Rob Moore, Paramount's president of worldwide marketing and distribution, declined to comment on Internet reports that hefty payments were the motivating factor spurring the two studios.
Nikki Finke of the DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com blog and Greenfield, at his Pali Research blog, said that Paramount would get $50 million and that DreamWorks Animation would receive $100 million for making the switch -- payments that would "meaningfully" boost the bottom lines for both studios.
Katzenberg said he wouldn't discuss deal terms but acknowledged that the Shrek character and the heroes from the studio's upcoming "Bee Movie" and "Kung Fu Panda" would likely be enlisted in marketing efforts to promote the HD DVD format.
Moore also wouldn't comment on deal terms but said, "We think this decision is in the best interests of Viacom and of the consumer."
Moore said Paramount's research showed that those who bought stand-alone hi-def players -- as opposed to the popular PlayStation 3 game consoles that also play Blu-ray movies -- purchase more movie discs.
"Sony got off to a big lead because of the PS3, but we expect that to change dramatically," Moore said.
Sony has sold 1.4 million PlayStation 3s in the U.S. since launching the game console in November 2006, according to NPD Group. Ninety percent of Blu-ray movies are being played on the PlayStation 3, which consumers buy primarily to play video games, analyst Roden said.
Sony will release the first Spielberg film in the hi-def format, the 1977 classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," on Nov. 13.
Analysts said that until Monday, Blu-ray had been perceived as the likely winner of the high-definition movie war, with all studios in its camp either fully or partially except Universal.
Monday's announcement gives HD DVD a fighting chance, said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner Inc. But it also could keep consumers on the fence and ultimately prevent sales of high-definition movies from taking off.
"The customer attitude right now is wait and see," Baker said. "This just prolongs that wait-and-see period."
One reason for the fierce competition is the high stakes involved in owning the technology licenses to the next-generation of DVDs, Baker said.
"It's a winner-take-all battle," he said. "And that's why you see both sides digging in their heels.
"Most consumers are going to choose not to spend their money" when there's a format war, he said. "They're going to continue to buy [regular] DVDs and say that's good enough."
But lower prices will help the HD DVD eventually triumph, said Blair Westlake, vice president of software giant Microsoft Corp., a backer of HD DVD.
"Consumers want hardware that's low priced in order to enter the high-definition market, and HD DVD is fast approaching that mark," Westlake said. "Consumers know they can buy a standard def DVD player today for less than $100, so they don't want to pay five or six times that to get into a new format."
[email protected]
[email protected]
--
Times staff writer Joseph Menn contributed to this report.
--
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Comparing formats
The two dueling high-definition DVD formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray, offer far sharper images than standard DVD. Some analysts liken the format war to the old VHS-Betamax battle.
DVD
Data capacity per layer: 4.7 giga bytes
Maximum image resolution (in pixels) :640 x 480
Thickness of recorded layer :0.6 mm
Studio backers: All
Retail launch : 1997
--
HD DVD
Data capacity per layer: 15 gigabytes
Maximum image resolution (in pixels) :1,920 x 1,080
Thickness of recorded layer :0.6 mm
Studio backers: DreamWorks Animation SKG, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros
Retail launch : Winter 2005
--
BLU-RAY
Data capacity per layer: 25 gigabytes
Maximum image resolution (in pixels) :1,920 x 1,080
Thickness of recorded layer :0.1 mm
Studio backers: Disney, Lions Gate, MGM, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros.
Retail launch : Spring 2006
--
Source: Times research
TECHNOLOGY
2 studios bet HD DVD will be a hit
DreamWorks and Paramount choose the high-definition discs over rival Blu-ray.
By Josh Friedman and Alex Pham Times Staff Writers
August 21, 2007
The format war over next-generation DVDs appeared to have a clear winner, but the picture just got fuzzier.
Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said Monday that they would offer movies exclusively in the HD DVD format rather than in that of the better-selling Blu-ray -- a surprise move that complicates the technology battle that Blu-ray had been clearly winning.
"I am very late to this party because I was skeptical about high definition," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, "but what is happening in the marketplace is a game changer."
Not included are director Steven Spielberg's films, which the companies said were "not exclusive to either format." Spielberg, Katzenberg and mogul David Geffen sold their DreamWorks SKG live-action operation to Paramount parent Viacom Inc. last year.
Both HD DVD and Blu-ray players produce much sharper pictures than conventional DVD players. Because most people still have standard machines, high-definition discs are just a fraction of the overall DVD market. From Jan. 1 through Aug. 12, consumers bought 2.1 Blu-ray discs and 1.1 million HD DVD discs, compared with nearly half a billion standard DVDs, said Judith McCourt, research director of Home Media Research.
But HD DVD players now retail in some cases for $299 and could be headed as low as $199 by the holiday season, Katzenberg said, making them affordable to families just as a diverse group of hi-definition movies is going on sale. He further predicted that this summer's Hollywood blockbusters -- including installments of the "Shrek," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Harry Potter" franchises -- would make the fourth quarter the biggest ever in home entertainment.
Blu-ray players have come down to $499 today from about $1,000 a year ago.
Despite being more costly, Blu-ray discs have outsold HD DVDs by 2 to 1 this year, and retailers including Blockbuster Inc. and Target Corp. are lining up on the Blu-ray side, according to the Blu-ray Disc Assn.
"Blu-ray is going to win," said Andy Parsons, spokesman for the trade group. "It's just a question of how much longer it's going to take now."
He said the decision "seems oddly timed given Blu-ray's tremendous momentum both with consumers and with retail."
Target will start selling a Blu-ray device this fall for the holiday shopping season, although it will still offer discs in both formats. Blockbuster now stocks Blu-ray discs exclusively at most of its outlets.
Monday's move by Paramount and DreamWorks Animation is sure to further baffle consumers.
The DVD format battle is reminiscent of the videocassette fracas in the 1980s, won by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s VHS technology over Sony Corp.'s Betamax. Many consumers are holding back on hi-def DVD purchases for fear of ending up like Betamax purchasers who bet on the losing format.
Although lower prices will help spur sales of high-definition movie players, consumers will still hold off because they don't want to be stuck with an obsolete machine that won't be able to play new movies from the winning format a year from now, said Chris Roden, an analyst at Parks Associates in Dallas.
"You're not seeing mass adoption right now," said Roden, who projected that consumers would buy 4.9 million high-definition players this year. "People are just frustrated by the format war."
Universal Pictures releases film DVDs exclusively in HD DVD, developed by a consortium headed by Toshiba Corp.
Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., meanwhile, release titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray.
Now, Warner Bros. Pictures and its sibling New Line Cinema will be the only Hollywood studios serving both formats, said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research.
"If you want 'Transformers' and 'Shrek the Third,' you'll need an HD DVD player, but if you want 'Spider-Man 3' or 'Pirates 3' you'll need Blu-ray," Greenfield said. "This substantially prolongs the format war."
Paramount had been serving both formats. For DreamWorks Animation, "Shrek the Third" will mark its entry into the high-definition market.
The format battle -- which many had assumed was nearly over -- could drag on for years, one analyst said.
"We don't see an early winner in this," said Jan Saxton of Adams Media Research Inc. in Carmel. "Most people are not aware that the original video format [battle] between Betamax and VHS lasted 10 years."
Katzenberg and Rob Moore, Paramount's president of worldwide marketing and distribution, declined to comment on Internet reports that hefty payments were the motivating factor spurring the two studios.
Nikki Finke of the DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com blog and Greenfield, at his Pali Research blog, said that Paramount would get $50 million and that DreamWorks Animation would receive $100 million for making the switch -- payments that would "meaningfully" boost the bottom lines for both studios.
Katzenberg said he wouldn't discuss deal terms but acknowledged that the Shrek character and the heroes from the studio's upcoming "Bee Movie" and "Kung Fu Panda" would likely be enlisted in marketing efforts to promote the HD DVD format.
Moore also wouldn't comment on deal terms but said, "We think this decision is in the best interests of Viacom and of the consumer."
Moore said Paramount's research showed that those who bought stand-alone hi-def players -- as opposed to the popular PlayStation 3 game consoles that also play Blu-ray movies -- purchase more movie discs.
"Sony got off to a big lead because of the PS3, but we expect that to change dramatically," Moore said.
Sony has sold 1.4 million PlayStation 3s in the U.S. since launching the game console in November 2006, according to NPD Group. Ninety percent of Blu-ray movies are being played on the PlayStation 3, which consumers buy primarily to play video games, analyst Roden said.
Sony will release the first Spielberg film in the hi-def format, the 1977 classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," on Nov. 13.
Analysts said that until Monday, Blu-ray had been perceived as the likely winner of the high-definition movie war, with all studios in its camp either fully or partially except Universal.
Monday's announcement gives HD DVD a fighting chance, said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner Inc. But it also could keep consumers on the fence and ultimately prevent sales of high-definition movies from taking off.
"The customer attitude right now is wait and see," Baker said. "This just prolongs that wait-and-see period."
One reason for the fierce competition is the high stakes involved in owning the technology licenses to the next-generation of DVDs, Baker said.
"It's a winner-take-all battle," he said. "And that's why you see both sides digging in their heels.
"Most consumers are going to choose not to spend their money" when there's a format war, he said. "They're going to continue to buy [regular] DVDs and say that's good enough."
But lower prices will help the HD DVD eventually triumph, said Blair Westlake, vice president of software giant Microsoft Corp., a backer of HD DVD.
"Consumers want hardware that's low priced in order to enter the high-definition market, and HD DVD is fast approaching that mark," Westlake said. "Consumers know they can buy a standard def DVD player today for less than $100, so they don't want to pay five or six times that to get into a new format."
[email protected]
[email protected]
--
Times staff writer Joseph Menn contributed to this report.
--
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Comparing formats
The two dueling high-definition DVD formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray, offer far sharper images than standard DVD. Some analysts liken the format war to the old VHS-Betamax battle.
DVD
Data capacity per layer: 4.7 giga bytes
Maximum image resolution (in pixels) :640 x 480
Thickness of recorded layer :0.6 mm
Studio backers: All
Retail launch : 1997
--
HD DVD
Data capacity per layer: 15 gigabytes
Maximum image resolution (in pixels) :1,920 x 1,080
Thickness of recorded layer :0.6 mm
Studio backers: DreamWorks Animation SKG, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros
Retail launch : Winter 2005
--
BLU-RAY
Data capacity per layer: 25 gigabytes
Maximum image resolution (in pixels) :1,920 x 1,080
Thickness of recorded layer :0.1 mm
Studio backers: Disney, Lions Gate, MGM, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros.
Retail launch : Spring 2006
--
Source: Times research
So, Paramount and Dreamworks will collectively receive $150 million for their support of HD-DVD?
Chris Gerhard
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
I would like to see the return on investment calculation for that payment. How can the tiny market these formats are fighting for be worth that kind of money? This just means the idiotic format war continues indefinitely and neither format does much is all I can believe happens. It is rumored that the same sort of deal is being offered to Warner, the only remaining major neutral studio.
Chris
Warner could succomb to cash and then we firmly have inertia for quite a while. (even longer)
As to the money, it will underwrite a feature film or some other venture to make shareholders happy. Whatever they do with this found money, it won't have much to do with these niche formats.
As to the money, it will underwrite a feature film or some other venture to make shareholders happy. Whatever they do with this found money, it won't have much to do with these niche formats.
OldQuadGuy,
Thanks for putting the text in - I forgot people would need to register for it.
Thanks for putting the text in - I forgot people would need to register for it.
No problem. Thanks for the article.
We're still waiting for the 2009 switchover to HDTV broadcasting. Most people don't own HDTV sets yet and are waiting for the price to go down (I'm waiting for my old TV's to die). I'm not going to worry about two different HD formats. If DVD-A and SACD can live together, I don't see why HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can't live together. At this point we're probably stuck with both. Hopefully we'll get an "all in one" DVD-A, SACD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray player. Or the price will go down under $100 for HD-DVD & Blu-Ray players. If we don't get "all in one" players then the drag will be hooking up 3 DVD players to one's amplifier.
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When you think about this, there really is not that much difference between the two formats.
With DVD-A/SACD, there were clear cut differences. (Hybrid) SACD had the CD compatibility, while DVD-A allowed video features and "extras".
Aside from the data storage, what does Blu-Ray have over HD-DVD, or what does HD-DVD have over Blu-Ray? Really, it's just a high definition picture. Once you start watching them, you could care less.
Maybe a quality manufacturer will now produce a dual format player, even if it were "dual well". I wonder if that would be possible?
With DVD-A/SACD, there were clear cut differences. (Hybrid) SACD had the CD compatibility, while DVD-A allowed video features and "extras".
Aside from the data storage, what does Blu-Ray have over HD-DVD, or what does HD-DVD have over Blu-Ray? Really, it's just a high definition picture. Once you start watching them, you could care less.
Maybe a quality manufacturer will now produce a dual format player, even if it were "dual well". I wonder if that would be possible?
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